An exploration of pizza in and around Rochester, NY, one pizzeria at a time

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Ken's Pizza Corner, W. Henrietta Road

Ken's Pizza Corner is at the northwest corner of the intersection of West Henrietta and Erie Station Roads in Henrietta. It's been in business for 15 years, according to the menu, and bills itself as "The Authentic Pizzeria."I got a pepperoni slice from a pie that looked to be pretty fresh out of the oven. The crust was on the thin side of medium. The underside wasn't really charred, but had a sort of a pebbly, tortoise-shell appearance.First thing I noticed on taking a bite was the crunch. Very crunchy slice of pizza. Crunchy on taking that first bite, and stayed crunchy even while chewing: crunch, crunch, crunch.It was good, though. This wasn't the kind of crunchiness that you get when a pizza has been cooked on a greasy surface and comes out more fried than baked. The underside was not greasy, nor was the dough particularly dry or brittle - it folded pretty easily. The slice hadn't been rewarmed, either (which will tend to make a slice crunchier) - as I said, the pie seemed to have just come out of the oven. It was just that those little pebbly areas you see on the underside were super crunchy.As for flavor, the slice as a whole tasted of well-done toast and burnt cheese. That's not meant as a putdown, but as you can see the cheese was pretty well browned, if not blackened in spots, and had that distinctive, not unpleasant flavor of burnt cheese. Maybe "burnt" is too strong an adjective; I don't mean burnt to a crisp. "Caramelized" might work better, although that usually refers to sugar. Anyway, you know what I mean.The sauce stayed very much in the background and was barely detectable on my palate. The cheese was applied in a moderate amount, neither skimpy nor heavy. As will happen when cheese gets well done, it had congealed together and could probably have been lifted off the slice in one piece.The wide-and-thin pepperoni was OK, a bit crisp along the edges, and it added a bit of spicy bite in the flavor.Pizza Corner has a fairly long menu, with quite a few specialty pizzas, including a potato pizza and a "cajun chicken alfredo" pizza. There are also calzones, wraps, quesadillas, wings, grilled items, sides and salads, subs, and several pasta dishes available, and a few desserts as well, such as cannolis and cheesecake.There's some seating, including a couple of tables on the front porch if you want to dine al fresco. The menu says they have "limited delivery," whatever that means.Speaking of the menu, I should mention Pizza Corner's unusual guarantee, part of which reads: "if you happen to purchase a pizza from someone else in our area and are dissatisfied with it, I [meaning Ken, I guess] want you to contact me immediately at 334-0090 and I will exchange the uneaten portion of their pizza with a quality Pizza Corner Pizza of the same size and toppings for free!" I'm curious to know how many people have taken them up on that offer.Anyway, back to my pizza - I had to wonder, eating this remarkably crunchy slice, was it typical of Pizza Corner's pizza, or did the pie from which this slice was taken spend a little longer in the oven than usual? I don't know, but I think even if this pizza had come out of the oven sooner it would still have been pretty crunchy. That crunch wasn't just from a long cooking time, but from the dough. I don't know if it was the ingredients, the rise time, or something else, though. Anyway, while this didn't exactly fit the profile of my ideal pizza, it was good, and what's also important, it was distinctive. I'll give it a B.

4 comments:

I just ordered a pizza from there, and I found it to be quite delicious.

However, my pizza was not crunchy as described here. That is fine with me, as I was not disappointed at all with this pizza.

I have been wanting to try Pizza Corner pizza for quite some time. I know that a lot of times, I will build up the hype for something, and I get let down when I finally get around to it. Not the case at all. I enjoyed this pizza very much. The pizza is thin, but not too thin, the crust is crunchy, the cheese is a little chewy (just perfect for me), but nowhere near rubber.

Overall, I found this pizza very good and will definitely be getting more in the future.

I'm glad it was good. I know just stopping in for a slice is not always going to give an accurate picture of what you might get if you order a whole pie. That's one reason that I welcome comments from readers, to get more input and perspectives on the places I've covered.

I used to be a HUGE fan of their pizza. A few of us here at work in West Henrietta frequent the place as a group regularly, and noticed their slices had a weird consistency to the crust. We returned for lunch a few days later and saw them using a rolling pin to roll out the crust for their lunch slices. No wonder why the dough tasted a bit weird, wasn't cooked through, and had a layer that ran through the crust that was kinda "raw/uncooked" looking. I've had a few issues with orders in the past, and their staff's lazy attitude then has kept me from bothering to say anything. I've just stopped going, and got to Mark's in Scottsville now.

Ratings Guide

A: great; one of the best this area has to offerB: pretty good; not top-notch, but definitely good, and better than averageC: OK; nothing special, but it’ll do; typical for our areaD: edible; if you’ve already paid for it, you might as well eat itF: downright bad; toss it and get something else